Full Jails Affecting Local Police - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

Full Jails Affecting Local Police

The Bismarck and Mandan Police Departments are feeling the effects of full County Jails.

Jon Schaeffer shows you how each department is dealing with the challenges of full facilities.

Today Morton County Jail is housing 34 inmates and EIGHT more are being held at other facilities.

Burleigh County has 135 of its 138 beds filled and are housing another 10 people at other jails around the region.

Deputy Chief, Randy Ziegler says, "Whenever Burleigh County calls and says there's no room at the inn we basically get our warrants officers there we transport prisoners to wherever we have contracts."

Ziegler says by having to transport prisoners-- that takes two officers off of the streets.

"Now there aren't two officers out on the streets backing up fellow officers so we get into community safety and officer safety when we have to make these transports."

While Morton County has a full jail-- Mandan Police Chief Dennis Bullinger says his officers haven't had to deal with transporting inmates.

Dennis Bullinger says, "We've been lucky enough that and there's been moments when there isn't a jail bed available but the agreement is that the sheriff's department the sheriff will if he has to move someone or if someone has to be moved to another facility they do that."

That allows Bullinger to have his men on the streets handling what he says has been an increase in calls for service.

Bismarck P. D. will be adding 6 more officers to their force in January... and Ziegler says people won't stop being arrested for their crimes because of the full jail.

Randy Ziegler is the Deputy Chief for Bismarck P. D. He says, "When the jails full they gotta go somewhere and public safety is not going to suffer because of this. We're not gonna not arrest someone because the jails full. We may have to go to Morton, Pierce, Stutsman, or mercer ya know we just gotta get creative."

Both Police Departments are facing challenges, hoping they can be resolved as soon as possible.

Burleigh and Morton County are currently working with each other to figure out the best procedure to solving jail issues.

A joint jail between the two counties is one of the strong options being discussed.